Slashdot Mirror
Pirate Bay Gets a 4,000-Page Complaint
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Swedish prosecutors appear to be close to finally pressing charges against The Pirate Bay, having served them with 4,000 pages of legal papers. While this might appear bad, the administrators have already moved some of the servers out of the country, so Swedish prosecutors can't shut it down, even if they want to. Moreover, the people of Sweden are decidedly on their side, with the Pirate Party, which is sympathetic to TPB's cause, being one of the top ten political parties in the country. Still, this looks like a dirty trick on the part of the prosecutors — like they're dumping all of this on the defendants in the hope that they won't have enough time to sort through it and defend themselves. For comparison, the second-biggest murder case in Sweden required only 1,500 pages."
Murder's a pretty simple issue compared to copyright. I don't know about the Swedish legal system, but if the prosecution dropped 4000 pages of paperwork on a defendant right before some deadline in the US system, the defendant's lawyers would ask the judge for more time, and get it (unless the fix was in).
I'm wondering if it is possible to post the whole thing on the internet and get help and input from people on the internet, maybe not legal?, is there someone here on slashdot that knows something about swedish law?
preview button, my computer does't have any preview button
Looking forward to watching the Pirates of the Bay become a different kind of 'pirate.'
I note that our game's up on The Pirate Bay for people to download (http://www.caravelgames.com). So, uh, it's not just the big bad RIAA that they're thumbing their nose at, it's everyone who tries to make some kind of money from content. They don't care who they hurt.
I mean, it's not like we're even being that unreasonable. The engine's open source under the MPL (http://www.caravelgames.com/sourcecode.html), and the 'demo' has no time-limit, contains the game's editor and can export and import the hundreds of free levels the game's fans have created. The only thing we're selling is the media we've actually created to sell, 'premium content' if you will. Really, the only reason you'd have to pirate the game is to take away a sale from a bunch of guys who wanted to make the sort of game they don't really make any more. It's a dick move.
It's a shame that the Pirate Bay are being set up as these renegade folk heroes, but I guess that's what happens when a smaller villain tweaks the nose of a larger one.
even one life is worth more then all of their music sales ever, and all sales they will ever make.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Actually, what their doing is almost certainly legal. They have been operating for years without being successfully prosecuted. They hold that they are acting within the law.
If it was clear they were breaking the law, then it would not have taken so long to start a prosecution, now would it have required so much paper work. Everyone knows exactly what they do, and they have never denied it.
If you think that they are acting illegally, please tell us exactly what law they are breaking.
My Rules of Acquisition You MAY acquire a copy if: 1. it is not available in your State or Country. 2. the local price, ignoring taxes, is more than 50% higher than the Amazon US Dollar price 3. the TV show is on free-to-air (network) television in a prime time slot, heavily hyped, then shifted to an 11:30pm slot. Either the show is good or the show is crap - make up your mind before wasting my time. You MUST buy a legitimate copy if 3. You enjoy it to the point of watching it more than once. 4. You recommend the series to your friends and family. Rules 1 & 2 are about punishing Copyright Holders for being idiots by treating their customers like idiots. Rule 3 & 4 are about rewarding Copyright Holders for making enjoyable content and showing some respect to their customers.
It's a shame that the Pirate Bay are being set up as these renegade folk heroes, but I guess that's what happens when a smaller villain tweaks the nose of a larger one. While I agree with you that a game licensed in that fashion shouldn't be pirated, it's not really fair to blame The Pirate Bay for the fact it is. The torrents on TPB are added by users. I won't blame TPB for hosting specific material as they don't add it themselves and don't have the resources to investigate torrents to see how friendly the content's license is.
Life's pretty tough for developers. Same for the end user though. I can think of one particular simulator I've spent USD1000 on where the developers turned around and treated me like dirt for daring to make suggestions that their anti-piracy makes their software very difficult for me to use (large software dongle, version specific, and I want to use this r/c sim on the train so i have to pick which version in advance and carry a second bag to use it). They even picked sides with people who were hurling all kinds of abuse at me and ended up banning me. Their board of course, but I'll never touch their software again. Screw 'em.
Clearly if I'm spending so much (and I do know how to get around their crappy protection at least for earlier versions) I'm not busy downloading the content off pirate bay. So why am I posting this? Because the copy protection gets in my way as a legitimate user, and because just as users can treat developers badly so to developers can treat users badly.
Your team should put a notice in the about screen (and even if you must in some in game advertising) about paying for the product. Hell you could even make it part of the media content. However you do it don't make it obnoxious though. Then ACCEPT the fact that some maybe even many people will pirate it. The trade off for a smaller less well established company is you get more exposure. Think of the cost of your advertising. Most of the users downloading off TPB aren't the types who are going to buy your software anyway. As infuriating as it must be you lose very few sales in letting them use it. Focus on the users who do support your development instead of trying to lock your product down.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Har! Wrong, matey. That is exactly what most of them are. I don't know too many rich people who bother to download games/movies/music. Why should they? The ones who most object to paying for a 'free' copy of something are the ones who have to work at some shite job that they can't stand doing, where they are counting every minute of every hour until they can escape from their wage slave existence.
Of course, you have to have money at least to some degree to have a computer and an internet connection. Most of the poor people I have met in the third world have neither. The computer alone is often more than a year's salary.
Robin Hood is actually an excellent analogy. The people they/we are 'stealing' from are pretty much about as rich as you can get. I mean they ain't exactly Bill Gates, but most do make more in a week than I make in a whole year. And for accomplishing very little of any real value to the world. You can argue about the relative wealth of the recipients, but the wealth of the 'victims' is indisputable. And the story does play like a sort of geek folk tale, a David-Golaith story where we all know who ultimately is going to win.
I don't believe that 'information' is something that can be stolen. I do believe in copyright actually (and it is like a religion), but I don't believe it is ethical to enforce against anyone who is not actually making a profit from it. thepiratebay doesn't make a dime of profit from the copyrighted files they help distribute. Might as well throw all the postal services in jail. And thepiratebay folks barely even qualify as messengers anyway. If you don't like the precariousness of selling binary data, go do something else. I dunno. Learn how to cook or something. You can't copy a hamburger. Then you won't feel so cheated when nearly perfect (except for the cracked binary) copies of your hard work are given away to anyone with a computer and an internet connection.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
Have you tried asking nicely?
No, I'm not kidding. What I'd do is post a comment to the torrent with that software saying that if people liked it, they can support you at http://www.caravelgames.com/ You might be surprised, I imagine some people would support you as a result. Those who won't wouldn't anyhow.
A 'top ten' political party means the people of the country are behind you? You mean, like just how the American people are behind Ron Paul.
Most countries don't have one party with two wings like the US does. IINM any of Sweden's top ten can win, which would make it damned expensive for the corporations to bribe all the viable candidates like they do in the US. It's a lot harder to bribe ten men than it is two of them.
I'll be registering as a Republican just to vote for Ron Paul, bit I don't kid myself that he has any sort of chance; he's not the sort that would make a good corporate stooge. There's no way in hell the corporations will let him win.
In a plutocracy like the US, the golden rule is strictly followed: he who has the gold, rules. And the corporations have the gold.
I'll be splitting my vote between the Greens and Libertarians in th egeneral election. Again. The corporations' agenda is opposite to my own, and I believe that a vote for a candidate who will pass laws against my own interests is worse than a wasted vote; I'd be better off staying home than voting for someone who would have me in jail.
Free the hookers and druggies!
-mcgrew
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest